More by Kate

You can keep your Grammys and your Oscars. For brand managers and marketing directors, the awards that really matter are the Products of the Year USA competition, held this Tuesday evening in New York City. Now in its fifth year, it’s a sort of People’s Choice for consumer products, offering up a round of applause to items from every aisle of the supermarket and drugstore. But first, those items need a nod from the experts: A jury of industry leaders and journalists identifies the submitted products that demonstrate innovation in function, design, packaging, or ingredients. Then 50,000 shoppers from across the U.S. choose the winners, which range from toothpaste and antacids to pickles and detergent. What trends do the 27 honorees represent? Read on to find out. (Hint: You may want to keep pen and paper handy.)

Trend No. 1: We’re Nostalgic Late one night in 2011, Nestlé Crunch marketing manager Cherry Joh was brainstorming new variations on her brand’s iconic candy bar when she struck confectionary gold: adding the beloved flavors of Girl Scout Cookies. “We’d be combining two timeless classics and giving them a twist to make them relevant for today,” says Joh. Two years later, the company launched three types of Nestlé Crunch Girl Scout candy bars—Peanut Butter Crème, Caramel & Coconut, and Thin Mints. Were they a hit? Yup—during a presale on Facebook, 3,000 boxes were sold in 24 hours.

Nestlé Crunch bars aren’t the only childhood favorite teaming up with other treats: M&M’s now share a bag with costars like mini cookies, mini pretzel twists, and roasted almonds. It took months to develop the right balance of flavors and textures in the three snack mixes, which feature milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or peanut M&M’s.

Vlasic also sought to tap into nostalgia with its line of Farmer’s Garden pickles, which are packed without preservatives or artificial flavors and sold in mason jars for an artisanal look. “We wanted to re-create the same old-world pickles that my grandma used to make,” says Andy Reichgut, senior vice president of marketing. Among the new (old) touches: cloves of garlic, carrot slices, and red pepper strips.

Trend No. 2: We Want No-Hassle Healthy Food Enter five companies determined to make nutritious eating easier. For Dole, the goal was finding a less messy way to freeze fruit. “As the juice in berries freezes, it expands, destroying the fruit’s texture,” says marketing director Paul Panza; to limit that effect, Dole removes some of the water in its berries before chilling them. At Quaker, the idea was to create a grab-and-go version of premium oatmeal. Quaker Real Medleys (in four flavors, including cherry pistachio) contain a blend of oats, barley, and rye. Healthy Choice introduced the Even Bake Tray for its Baked Entrées, which cuts down on the cold spots and burnt edges that can make microwave meals so unappealing. Green Giant tackled this conundrum: how to make veggies tastier without cheese or butter sauces. Answer: six types of Seasoned Steamers, from honey Dijon carrots to backyard grilled potatoes. And SK Energy focused on a healthier energy drink—a blend of antioxidants, vitamins, and natural caffeine.

Trend No. 3: We’re Spending More Time Outside Outdoor recreation is on the rise in America, according to a survey by the Outdoor Foundation—but we still want to keep the annoying parts of nature at bay. With Off! Bug Control Backyard Pretreat, you can skip dousing yourself and instead use the garden hose to spray the greenery around your patio or porch with a formula that promises to repel more than 110 kinds of insects for up to eight weeks. The Adams Smart Shield Pet Applicator can keep critters from hitching a ride on Fido. The company tested nearly 70 applicators to find the best one at getting the flea and tick treatment on your pet and not on you.

Dixie’s mission? Build a better paper plate. “People are eating out less, but they’re still hosting get-togethers,” says brand director Laura Knebusch. Over the past few years, the R&D team has redesigned the Dixie Ultra plate’s rim to support more weight; fortified the Soak Proof Shield to prevent grease from seeping through; strengthened the plate’s layers; and covered it all in an attractive colorful print.

Trend No. 4: We’re Ready to Talk About Our, Um, Development Stages Some 50 million women in North America are in or approaching menopause, yet less than 5 percent of women can list its top symptoms. So when Poise put out its Feminine Wellness line of menopause-relief products—including cooling cloths for hot flashes and a personal lubricant—it also launched the2ndtalk .com, where more than 1 million women have gathered to share stories and get advice. “We learned so much from the women,” says Poise brand director Rebecca Dunphey. “Lubricants are usually geared toward men and sold in the family-planning section, for example. Women in menopause didn’t feel like those products spoke to them.”

Aimed at the same group is MidNite for Menopause, a tablet containing melatonin, lavender, lemon balm, and chamomile that promises relief from the insomnia caused by fluctuating hormones.

GoodNites target a younger set—kids who wet the bed. Nearly 30 percent of 4-year-olds and more than 5 percent of 10-year-olds have nighttime accidents. As kids get older, they often don’t want to wear disposable underwear. The brand’s solution: disposable 2-by-3-foot mats that adhere to sheets. “Our mantra is: less laundry, less stress, more sleep,” says brand director Jen Wilder.

Trend No. 5: We See the Value in Green Take, for instance, the SodaStream, an at-home soda and seltzer maker that creates carbonated drinks (with a customizable level of fizz) from nearly 70 flavor syrups. One reusable carbonator makes the amount of soda found in 169 cans. Without those containers to transport from warehouses to stores to homes, less gasoline is burned.

A similar principle applies to laundry: Concentrated detergent means smaller bottles that demand fewer resources to manufacture and less gas to transport. But when companies switched to denser formulas in the mid-2000s, they faced a surprising hiccup: Consumers tended to use the same amount of detergent as before, dumping an extra “just in case” splash of soap into the wash—bad news for the clothes, the machine, and the planet. New All Mighty Pacs help eliminate the guesswork and curb waste. Each single- dose, dissolvable pod contains one load’s worth of super-concentrated liquid detergent.

Trend No. 6: We’re Sensitive About Our Mouths Plaque, shmaque. Today, consumers are more concerned about halitosis. “A lot of people have clinical issues under control. We’re seeing fewer cavities, for instance,” says Patrick Seiffert, senior brand manager at Aquafresh. “But bad breath is something we all have at some point, and it can cripple your social confidence.” The company spent two years developing a mineral compound to destroy the bacteria that generate foul smells. After testers brushed with the new paste, called Extreme Clean Pure Breath Action, their mouths had 80 percent fewer volatile sulfur compounds (which smell like—yuck!—rotten eggs).

Tums—the chewable antacid that’s been curbing heartburn for more than 80 years—also made a move for the mouth this past year. When research revealed that 94 percent of heartburn sufferers simultaneously experience bad breath, the brand developed Tums Freshers to help knock out both problems with a single tiny tablet.

“You use your mouth to eat, but also to express yourself. It’s an area of emotion,” says Tara Fourre, principal scientist at Johnson & Johnson. That was the inspiration behind Listerine Ultraclean with Everfresh Technology. To perfect the formula, Fourre’s team ran a grueling study: Subjects rinsed with the mouthwash, then rated how fresh their mouths felt every 15 minutes for a full eight hours.

Another ailment we could do without: cold sores. “They can be triggered by stressful events like a wedding or job interview, when you least want to deal with a blemish,” says Abreva spokesperson Debbie Bolding. So the company created Abreva Conceal, a clear, whisper-thin patch that covers the blister and allows users to apply lipstick or concealer on top.

Trend No. 7: We Expect a Lot From Our Cleaning Products “Gels and powders do different things in the dishwasher,” says Ben Crawley, senior brand manager at Finish. “We thought, why compromise?” The trick to combining the power of a gel and a powder was preventing ingredients from mixing and deteriorating before they hit your dishes. So the company introduced Finish Quantum with Power Gel, single-load capsules with three chambers—one for each ingredient, released as needed during the wash cycle.

The R&D team at Resolve devised a similar strategy for fighting laundry stains. Some (like coffee) need an oxygen-based solution; others (like grass) require enzymes. Resolve All-Stains tackles both types with a two-chamber bottle holding separate enzyme- and oxygen-based formulas, which mix only as they’re applied to clothes.

Surf had a simpler challenge: to develop an alternative to its popular powdered detergent. Its Surf Liquid formula gives clothes the same bright, breezy scents as the powder.

Even the ever reliable paper towel has gotten a makeover: Brawny adjusted the quality and type of fibers it uses, and tweaked how they bond, to make wet paper towels stronger for tougher jobs in the bathroom and garage.

Trend No. 8: We Like to Be Pampered in the Bathroom When it comes to bath tissue, luxury has meant different things at different times: In the 1920s, Quilted Northern debuted the first sterilized toilet paper; in the 1930s, it touted its splinter-free guarantee (ouch); and in the 1960s, it launched two-ply paper. The latest wrinkle: Quilted Northern Ultra Plush, the only three-ply paper with an “Innerlux” layer for added absorbency. “In spite of the down economy, consumers still want to spend on small, everyday indulgences,” says brand director Kirsten Hadley. “Bath tissue is one of those things you’re not willing to trade off.”

For soap maker Dial, the call for luxury came from a consumer: During a focus group, a college student observed that if Dial could combine its cleansing with the moisturizing of other brands, it would produce an ideal body wash. The R&D department determined it had major technical hurdles to clear. Building “the perfect formula” (as it came to be known internally) took just over a year. The result, Dial Triple Moisture, “is an opportunity to bring that spa feeling of luxuriously soft skin home,” says Chris Sommer, vice president of marketing.